Official KISS thread

[jammindude]

With all the recent talks about autobiographies I'm inclined to ask...did Vinnie ever write one? I've heard a few snippets here and there from his time in the band (mostly seeming to whine that he was ripped off...and he may very well have been) but never anything terribly detailed.

Has he said anything of more detail?

I was a bit surprised that Gene mentioned him in the HoF speech, as it was my understanding that Gene's official version of why VV was cut out of Kisstory was because he never signed a full member contract (as Eric was) and so was never a member of Kiss.

[bl5150]

This might interest you jammindude if you haven't already seen it

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-long-kiss-goodbye-the-search-for-vinnie-vincent-20140408

[jammindude]

Wow! That was an amazing...and very tragic...read.

Maybe he just needs a hug.

[Lynxo]

I still remember loosing my shit when on the HITS tour they started to play I Want You.  Paul let out that huge, "IIIIIIISSSSSSSSS"!!

Something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8GnyfxrNEg

I just love that clip, especially the wailing at the end. Paul Stanley will always be my favorite vocalist and frontmen of any band. That power...

[TAC]

This might interest you jammindude if you haven't already seen it

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-long-kiss-goodbye-the-search-for-vinnie-vincent-20140408

Wow!

[Jaq]

This might interest you jammindude if you haven't already seen it

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-long-kiss-goodbye-the-search-for-vinnie-vincent-20140408

I read that around the time that Kiss announced they wouldn't play at the HoF ceremony. What a story.

[Tick]

Updated cover with the current Gene and Paul!

[bl5150]

It looks like Ace's new solo album is going to sneak into the Top 10 on Billboard.  Impressive.

[Zydar]

Yeah, it's very impressive. And I quite like his album too.

[Orbert]

Oh man, am I actually going to have to check this album out?  I honestly didn't think it could possibly be any good, but people are saying it is, and now I don't know what to do.

[BlobVanDam]

People said his last one was good too, but that was an awful album.
The one song I've heard from the new one sounded like a passable rejected studio track for KISS Alive 2, recorded in a backyard studio.

[Orbert]

Okay, but you have to admit that you're a tougher critic than most.

[BlobVanDam]

Maybe just a little.

[Lowdz]

People said his last one was good too, but that was an awful album.
The one song I've heard from the new one sounded like a passable rejected studio track for KISS Alive 2, recorded in a backyard studio.

I went in to Anomaly thinking it was gonna be great as loads of people were saying it was. They were wrong. It was complete bollox.
The new one however, is really good. It's not up there with the 78 solo album but at least as good as Trouble Walkin' and Second Sighting.

[TAC]

People said his last one was good too, but that was an awful album.
The one song I've heard from the new one sounded like a passable rejected studio track for KISS Alive 2, recorded in a backyard studio.

I went in to Anomaly thinking it was gonna be great as loads of people were saying it was. They were wrong. It was complete bollox.
The new one however, is really good. It's not up there with the 78 solo album but at least as good as Trouble Walkin' and Second Sighting.

Anomaly had a great first single, but the rest of the album blew.

[King Postwhore]

Mnn.  I'll let my cousin review it for me, then, I'll "Borrow" it.

[jammindude]

Back in 1996-2000, I worked at a local department store CD shop.  Somehow during that time, I managed to get a copy of the Criss Cat #1 solo album from Peter Criss that came out in 1994.   In all that time, it has sat on my shelf without ever being played.  But today, I was ripping my CD library to my new system, and decided to give it a whirl. 

Considering how bad I've always heard PC's solo stuff was, I'm surprised at how much this doesn't suck.   I mean, it's not amazing...but several of these songs would have made great Kiss songs if he had never left.

EDIT - OH WOW!!  I just looked in the booklet and MIKE STONE (of QR fame) does the guitars and some lead vocals on the album!   And Ace Frehley is credited with the leads.   

[bl5150]

There is some decent stuff on those 80s-90's solo albums - in between plenty of filler.

One For All (2007) is where a lot of the heat comes from - even he now admits it just didn't work.

[The Curious Orange]

What annoys me about Kiss is the way they paint Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer up in the Space-Ace and Cat-Man make-up, almost as if they're trying to fool casual punters that it's still the original line-up.

Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent had their own make-up designs (The Fox and the incredibly silly Ankh-Warrior), I'd just have so much more respect for them if the new members had new characters. My $0.02.

EDIT: WTF am I talking about? I'd have more respect for them if they'd stuck with the unmasked look. They're all far too old for this crap, and I for one lost interest when the make-up went back on.

[King Postwhore]

If people are dumb enough to know that Ace & Peter are not in the band anymore then it's on them.  It's only been a decade plus again they've been out.

[Orbert]

Gene and Paul decided that the Cat and the Spaceman are characters.  If you're the lead guitarist, you "become" the Spaceman, the role originated by Ace.  If you're the drummer, you are the Cat, the role originated by Peter.  It makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose, though I can definitely see it as a slap in the face to Ace and Peter.  If it had always been this way, then it might be a little better, but I kinda liked the idea of each new member creating their own character.  To do that for a while, then decide that the original characters should be preserved and always be the ones onstage is lame.

But yeah, lamer still is that these are guys in their 50's and 60's putting on makeup, again.

[Grappler]

EDIT: WTF am I talking about? I'd have more respect for them if they'd stuck with the unmasked look. They're all far too old for this crap, and I for one lost interest when the make-up went back on.

I was too much young to see Kiss in their heyday in the 70's (wasn't even born yet) and 80's.  They played on the original Farewell Tour in 2000 in the basketball arena in my college town, which was when they introduce the non-makeup era songs back into the set after the reunion.  I got 7th row tickets for that show.  I had NEVER seen them live, and if I was going to see Kiss for the first time, it had better damn well be in the makeup with the full live show experience.

So now you have new generations - a guy I know that is a little older than me that grew up loving Kiss (and played in a death metal band) now takes his young son to see them live.  Do you think he wants his kid to see Gene's ugly mug without makeup?  Or does he want his kid to see those guys in makeup and costume, experiencing what he also did as a child?

I don't begrudge them for putting Tommy and Eric in the Ace/Peter makeups - that's what people want to see.  I wanted to see it and I'm glad that I did back then.

[Orbert]

Get off my lawn!!

But seriously, that's a point I hadn't considered.  I'd rather see The Demon than Gene's ugly face without it. 

[cramx3]

Having just seen Ghost over the weekend, seems Kiss isn't too far different from just throwing the mask on someone else and "its the same" in terms of sound and image of the band. 

I've never seen Kiss before and I got a ticket to see them at MSG, I'd prefer they had the make up on.  Not that I wouldn't go if they didn't, but I'd like to see the show they are known for.

[Stadler]

Having seen them with makeup and without, with the original band and with Tommy and Eric... and I have to say...

At this point, I'd rather see the current incarnation. 

I saw the last tour with Peter and it was EMBARASSING.  It was BAD.   Kiss is a far better live band than they get credit for, and while its probably because they've played Deuce 24,362 times (and if you can't get it right at that point...) but the young blood helps.   I'd see Ace instead of Tommy (he IS the weak link after all) but I have zero interest in seeing Peter Criss in that makeup, on that stage. 

interesting too, is that they are a different band with and without makeup.  The non-makeup years was more... LA polish.  Paul was a different front man, far more sexually explicit (LOTS of f-bombs) and suggestive, whereas with the makeup, there's a level of respect there (probably not the right word) but less of a "we're at the Playboy Mansion" vibe and more of a pure "rock and roll party" vibe. 

I saw the reunion at MSG, and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen.  They were home, and they were hungry.  I saw the Aerosmith/Kiss tour, and Peter was phoning it in like I've literally never seen before or since.   I'm convinced to this day there was either a drummer under the stage or some other help, because he barely looked like he was playing and he forgot some of the words to Beth. It's a 2:15 second song that you wrote and made your entire career/fortune on.  You can remember the three verses, you lazy asshole.    I saw the Kiss/Def Leppard show, and while it started weak, they kicked it into another gear about midway through (even my daughter said the next day "Dad, did something happen?  It seemed like they got mad!") and she called it the "greatest night of her life". 

Honestly, I think the people crying for Ace/Peter are the same people crying for Michael Anthony, and honestly, I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the dfference while you're there in the arena at full volume and full stage show.

[Nel]

Was never a big fan of the band, more of a casual one, but when I was getting into them and going through the band's history, I always did like the idea of new members having their own characters and makeup design.

I get why they do it the way they do it now, but still. I remember when I first saw that they had a "solo album" art made for Eric Carr like the original four had for their 1978 albums, with his own theme color assigned to him and everything (orange), I thought that was pretty cool.

[ZirconBlue]

I much prefer the music from the non-makeup era, so, personally, I'd rather have Bruce and Eric back without the makeup instead of the walking midlife crisis the band became.  I saw the original "farewell" tour and it was OK, but that was when they turned from being relevant to being a nostalgia act.

[TAC]

Stumbled upon this on YouTube tonight.

1976 Rehearsal footage. Amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh5kPjvmEP8

[Setlist Scotty]

Add me to the list that don't have a problem with them doing the makeup, since that's what they're known for, but each of the new guys should have their own makeup/identity. Besides being respectful to Ace and Peter (as if Gene and Paul ever cared), it would be cool to see what each of the guys would've come up with. And for the record, I don't get the issues with Vinnie's ankh warrior makeup - it wasn't the greatest by any means, but it's better (IMO) than Paul's makeup. YEAH!!!! Let's put a black star over one eye and nothing else! Killer idea!    

[Stadler]

Scotty, it should be clear now that I have a deep respect for your musical knowledge and your general opinion on music, but for me, who grew up in real time with the band, knowing those four faces, and more importantly, NOT having a "real face" to associate wth it, I much prefer the Ace/Peter makeup/character even if it isn't actually Ace or Peter playing.  You have to remember, this isn't like Ozzy, or Joe Perry, where there was a persona or a personality that went along with it.  Other than that now-legendary Tom Snyder appearance, the Kiss experience from 1974 to about 1980, 1982 was almost PURELY visual.  You never heard Ace or Peter talk in interviews.  You didn't see their mansion of the stars.  They didn't appear - like they do now - on "That Metal Show".  Many of their covers were cartoons or artistic reproductions of the "symbols" of their face. 

It's almost like Star Wars; Kenny Baker died; should R2-D2 now have a new "color scheme"?   

[Setlist Scotty]

Scotty, it should be clear now that I have a deep respect for your musical knowledge and your general opinion on music, but for me, who grew up in real time with the band, knowing those four faces, and more importantly, NOT having a "real face" to associate wth it, I much prefer the Ace/Peter makeup/character even if it isn't actually Ace or Peter playing.  You have to remember, this isn't like Ozzy, or Joe Perry, where there was a persona or a personality that went along with it.  Other than that now-legendary Tom Snyder appearance, the Kiss experience from 1974 to about 1980, 1982 was almost PURELY visual.  You never heard Ace or Peter talk in interviews.  You didn't see their mansion of the stars.  They didn't appear - like they do now - on "That Metal Show".  Many of their covers were cartoons or artistic reproductions of the "symbols" of their face. 

It's almost like Star Wars; Kenny Baker died; should R2-D2 now have a new "color scheme"?

I beg to differ on the fact that a persona or personality went along with the makeup - it most certainly did. While I realize they may not have contributed to the same extent as Gene or Paul, they had roles within that band that most certainly were specifically them. It wasn't as if they were playing a role like Kenny Baker did. They wrote and played songs in their own particular way, which is different from everyone else who's followed them. Can't say the same thing about Kenny Baker. Plus the fact that Eric and Vinnie did also have their own makeup is another reason why. Had each of them taken over the cat and spaceman makeup upon joining the band, there would be less argument now. But they already had set a precedent that new members would have their own makeup.

[ProfessorPeart]

Well, Ace finally stopped playing the game and dropped the gloves.

Gene said this stuff:

https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/01/paul-stanley-ace-frehley-and-peter-criss-are-welcome-onstage-but-are-never-going-to-be-in-kiss-again/

Then Ace replied with this:

https://www.facebook.com/officialacefrehley/photos/a.115366315377/10155634789055378/?type=3&theater

[bl5150]

Gene and Ace seemed to bet getting on great of late and Gene even let his band become Ace's band.

I reckon this is Gene saying what Paul wants him to say and now rightly copping it from Ace.


And Paul has hired a painter as the support for a swag of US dates 

[Orbert]

A what?!

A painter, like, the opening act is watching a guy paint something?

[bl5150]

Garibaldi - "performance painter"

https://www.facebook.com/garibaldiarts/videos/1149410808516915/

I doubt Gene was present at that meeting